The Indian juniors, pursuing tennis, will have an extended French Open wild card competition this season, with two qualifiers in Pune and Kolkata, followed by the Masters for the top-16 in Delhi.
These events will be National series U-18 tournaments, featuring 64 boys and 48 girls in the main draw. The tournaments will be held in Kolkata from March 20 and Pune from March 27.
The top-16 will qualify for the Masters to be staged in Delhi on April 18 and 19.
The champion boy and girl will travel to Paris to compete in a French Open junior wild card event along with champions from Brazil, Korea, China, Japan and U.S. The eventual champions from that event will get a wild card entry in the French Open junior event in Paris.
Three-time French Open champon Arantxa Sanchez Vicario is scheduled to be in the Capital during the Masters. Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli had visited the Capital last year. There will also be experts from France to guide the youth and conduct clinics for the benefit of all.
The AITA had taken the initiative to convert two synthetic courts at the DLTA in the Capital to clay courts with material from Europe at considerable cost last year. Those courts are expected to come back to life for the Masters this season.
The president of the Asian Tennis Federation (ATF), Anil Khanna
expressed happiness about the French initiative not only for India but for the Asian region.
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